Hi again!  This is a story that really won't take off until the second chapter, when it will go to various characters' perspectives.  I'm really bad at doing fight scenes, especially with large groups, so bear with me.

My Disclaimer can't come to the computer right now, as he's locked himself in his trailer and is trying to sue me for Disclaimer abuse.  Go figure!

*Bamf*

Hey!  Kurt, what are you doing here?

Kurt:  Vell, Marvel heard about your lack of Disclaimer and the whole lawsuit thing and didn't vant to have to sue you for not having a Disclaimer, so they sent me to come visit for avhile!

Taineyah: *Glomp*  I love you Marvel!!!

*The Marvel Gods smile*

Kurt:  *sounding rather strangled*  By the vay, Taineyah doesn't own my friends and enemies or me! 

Prologue:  The Incident

            The Professor looked at his assembled team of students.  "The Brotherhood and the Acolytes have banded together under Magneto's leadership."

            "That's great!  They've probably got some awful plan to destroy humans that'll never work and they're goin' ta fail miserably.  Ah mean, since when do the Acolytes and the Brotherhood actually get along?"  Rogue didn't seem too concerned with the current situation.

            "Apparently they're getting along now.  They're planning to destroy the Abernathie Hotel during the anti-mutant conference today.  There are going to be 3000 people there.  You have to stop them."

            The X-men looked at one another in astonishment.  Surely even Magneto wouldn't stoop that low.  It was an out and out massacre.

            The Professor looked around the room apologetically.  "I'm sorry I didn't have more warning for you.  As it is, I barely learned what was going on."

            Scott spoke up.  "How much time do we have?"

            "Only a couple of hours, if that.  You have to leave now."

            Before the last word was out of Xavier's mouth, the X-men were on their feet.  The regulars were present, along with Bobby and Jubilee.  They started out the door to go to the X-jet.  As they moved, Xavier had a horrible sense of foreboding.

            "Everyone!" he called and, as one, they turned to look at him.  "Be careful."

            Everyone made an affirmative sound and were gone before he knew it.  He shook his head, but couldn't shake off the bad feeling that was gnawing away at his insides.  He gathered his composure and headed down to Cerebro.

***

            Kurt flew the X-jet as quickly as he could.  There was no way that they could afford to be late, even by a second.  A second could be the difference between 3000 people living or dying.  The hotel had two sections, one taller than the other by five stories.  Kurt set the plane down on the higher of the two, knowing that it was easier and faster to get down from the roof than go up to it.  All of the X-men were sure that Magneto would send his people to the rooftops.

            The X-men had only been waiting for a couple of minutes when the door from the interior of the hotel to the roof opened, revealing the Brotherhood.  An instant later, five transport orbs set down, surrounding the jet.  They opened, and Magneto stepped out of one.

            "Ah...so Charles found out about our little party.  How lovely."  There was no sarcasm to his voice, he honestly seemed pleased.

            "He found out about your plan, and we don't like it," Logan said, approaching the Master of Magnetism.

            Magneto didn't even bother using his magnetism on Logan's adamantium skeleton.  He just waved Sabretooth forward and motioned that the ugly cat-man could do as he pleased with his enemy.

            Sabretooth, the predictable creature that he was, attacked Logan and the fight was on.  Storm and Mystique paired off to battle, while Rogue approached Blob.  Jean took Toad.  Kitty attacked Colossus.  Evan and Quicksilver tried to kill each other, Quicksilver doing more running away than actual fighting, while Jubilee tried to at least distract Wanda until someone else was freed up.  Bobby froze Lance solid, then moved on to Pyro an instant later.  Scott and Gambit found themselves facing each other, while Magneto watched the two groups battle, laughing softly to himself.  He was sure to win.  The X-men were outnumbered and outmatched.  He was positive of it.

            For a few minutes, it looked like Magneto was right.  Bobby was having no effect on Pyro, aside from being an annoying distraction.  In fact, Pyro's fire was injuring Bobby on a regular basis and the young X-man was quite thoroughly singed.   Logan and Sabretooth, as everyone knew, could fight for hours without either one winning.  Quicksilver was more than a few steps ahead of Evan.  Each X-man, aside from Jean, was having definite problems.

            Jean, however, had Toad up in the air and was slamming him against anything solid that was standing upright on the roof, including Blob.  After a minute or two of this treatment, Toad lay still in her telekinetic grasp, and she dropped his unconscious form to the ground.

            She moved on to help the others, taking Wanda from Jubilee's hands and focusing her attentions on disabling the Scarlet Witch.  Jubilee sank down to the rooftop, injured by Wanda's hex-bolts and absolutely exhausted.  Even with Lance and Toad out of the fight, it still appeared that Magneto's team would win.  The X-men just couldn't seem to get a firm grip on things.  It didn't take a genius to figure out why, either.  Magneto's team members were actually working as a team, trying to help one another when the opportunity presented itself.

            The battle raged on for fifteen minutes, then twenty and, although Magneto's team had Wanda and Blob out of it, in addition to the other two, the X-men just couldn't seem to get the upper hand.  They put all of their strength into the battle.  Even Evan, the most easily distracted of the team, managed to focus every bit of his mind on the task at hand.  Suddenly, Scott hit Gambit, knocking the Cajun unconscious. 

            Scott took out Pyro, then Mystique.  He took out Sabretooth, freeing up Logan to give everyone else a hand.  Finally, the X-men were winning.  One after another, Magneto's team dropped.  At last, only Magneto and Quicksilver were left.  Magneto climbed into a transport orb and caused the other orbs to pick up his Acolytes.  Then, the X-men focused on getting Quicksilver stopped. 

            Scott, knowing that he couldn't hope to hit the speedy mutant without running a high risk of injuring his own team, attempted to herd Pietro towards Wolverine, who had his claws fully extended.  The X-men were all exhausted and Jubilee and Bobby were both injured, which made them slightly docile.  It also explained what happened next.

            Blob stood up, jumped up really, which was surprising since Rogue had put him out.  He yelled, which distracted everyone for a split second.  Pietro took advantage of the split second and ran to Scott at full speed.  With strength borne of sheer momentum, Pietro pushed Scott towards the edge of the roof.  Before anyone was even fully aware that Scott had moved, the X-man was toppling through the air towards the lower of the two roofs.

            "Scott!" Jean screamed and tried to stop his fall.  Unfortunately, she was too tired for her telekinesis to have any effect on something the size of a human.  In the dead silence that followed her yell, everyone heard a sickening splat. 

            As the X-men rushed over to where their leader had fallen, Pietro and Blob made a quick retreat, Blob carrying Lance and Pietro carrying Toad.  Mystique had been taken in the same orb as Magneto, for reasons known only to Magneto himself.

            Kurt, the most acrobatically inclined of the X-men, made a flying leap to the place where Scott lay.  He knew that he wouldn't have enough strength to 'port Scott to the jet if he 'ported down.  He landed softly and was disgusted by the amount of blood that was pooled around Scott.  Even worse, he could see that Scott wasn't breathing.  He grabbed the older teen's wrist and, to his horror, couldn't find a pulse.

            He immediately started CPR, thanking God that he'd paid attention during the first aid course that Hank had made them all sit through.

            ~Kurt!  What are you doing?  Get him up here!~  Jean's frantic voice filled the German's head.

            ~I can't.  Teleportation affects people badly.  I can't move him like this.  It might kill him.~

            ~Damn it Kurt!!!  If you don't get him up here now, he's going to die!  Move it!~

            ~But...~

            ~NOW, KURT!!!!!~  She yelled so loudly in his head that he had no choice but to obey.  Hoping that it might somehow protect Scott from the effects of the 'port, but knowing that it likely wouldn't, Kurt threw himself across Scott's body and teleported.

            As soon as Kurt had Scott in the plane, Ororo lifted off and Kurt went back to his CPR.  The rest of the X-men, aside from Bobby and Jubilee, did their best to hold Scott still as the plane sped off.

            Before the plane even landed at the mansion, Kurt threw himself across Scott again and, using every last bit of strength he had, 'ported Scott to the infirmary.

************************************************************************

Well, what do you think?  The next chapter is from Rogue's perspective.  Please R+R!